The Whiplash Encyclopedia: The Facts and Myths of Whiplash

"The impressive aspect of The Whiplash Encyclopedia is how the concepts presented can be immediately implemented by the medicolegal expert and lawyers in dealing with various aspects of whiplash injury claims. The concepts are explained in detail, scientifically based, with a language that crosses the barriers of communication between medical, psychology, insurance, and legal experts. The Whiplash Encyclopedia has all the information one needs to begin unravelling the complexities of a whiplash case, whether one is a novice or well-versed in the issues. Using the Whiplash Encyclopedia as a base for knowledge is the most effective way to utilize one's skills in the most effective manner in the medicolegal assessment and management of these cases."
~ Written on 2001-04-16

"Interesting. Very interesting. After years of practicing with these medicolegal quandries, The Whiplash Encyclopedia is a welcome eye-opener. Judging from the reviews thus far on this book, it is clear that whiplash is a highly polarized topic. What The Whiplash Encyclopedia does that no other book has ever done is find that all important middle ground. Ferrari has avoided polemics and avoided much of the bias that exists in debates by searching for a truth that lies somewhere in between the opposing views of insurance companies and the Plaintiff industry.

Ferrari asserts that the acute whiplash is real (it is a neck sprain), and that much of the chronic pain is real, even though clearly in some cases we all accept there is insurance fraud. Yet, he rejects the notion that the accidental whiplash injury produces some strange and curious chronic damage to the neck that causes chronic pain, and raises great doubt about the relationship between the accident and the chronic pain. He also rejects the notion that the pain is "all in one's head". This is where the book gets interesting - there is a third possibility above and beyond the polarized views of malingering and "unreal whiplash" on the one hand and chronic neck damage on the other. That is the truly novel gem in this book, and it may actually, besides saving insurers millions, save the courts and patients from their current struggles to deal with this problem.

I am going to suggest that any medical expert or lawyer who goes into court without knowing what is in this book, while your "opponent" is fully versed in this book, has just lost the argument, and quite probably the whole case for the not knowing. This book has an eerie power to open up one's mind on a topic that most of us had already decided we understood. Scary. Very scary."
~ Written on 1999-11-01